Incumbent Alexander, Challenger Kienzler Face Off On 58th District House Race

ENFIELD — Two residents, incumbent Democrat David Alexander and Republican Tom Kienzler, are battling for the 58th District House seat.

Alexander, 33, who graduated from Enfield High School, is a captain in the Marine Corps Reserves and a staff officer for the 1st Battalion, 25th Marines at Fort Devens, Mass.

"Two years ago, I ran with a lot of passion and a lot of ideas and I still feel that way today," he said.

Alexander said the district's biggest priorities are the Thompsonville transit center proposal and bringing attention to Enfield's Asnuntuck Community College manufacturing program.

"The future for Connecticut is creating high-skilled laborers and Asnuntuck leads on that front," Alexander said, "We should use it as a statewide model."

Alexander said a commuter rail stop in Thompsonville will do a lot on a "local and macro level," by creating transit-oriented development locally for the New Haven-to-Springfield line and also provide connecting transportation options to New York City, Boston or Canada.

Kienzler, 52, was born in Springfield, attended Springfield Technical High School, graduated in 1980 and moved to Enfield in 1993. He now works as a territory benefits specialist for Colonial Life.

He said that he also supports the commuter rail plan in Thompsonville and said he has a vision for the Thompsonville section of town, but that the number one priority is the state's economy.

"Right now, no one is addressing the circle — starting with a growth in small business, creating tax incentives to encourage more growth, then going into responsible spending and creating revenue to offset taxes," Kienzler said.

Kienzler said that although Asnuntuck's program is good, it offers students opportunities outside the community, benefiting the state but not Enfield.

"We need an economy surge here," Kienzler said. "Right now, you get out of Asnuntuck, you work in the service industry or head elsewhere in the state, not Enfield."

While serving on the veterans committee, Alexander pushed a bill, which became law, establishing a task force to review the military specialty training of returning veterans and determine if that can be applied to state licensing in lieu of a degree. Alexander supported a law that gives adoptees born after Oct. 1, 1984, access to their birth certificates so they learn more about their health records.

Kienzler served as a town council member from 2011 to 2013, as a Little League coach and on the league's board of directors from 2002 to 2010, and as a member of the Enfield Dog Park Action Committee from 2009 to 2011 and he has been on the Enfield Fourth of July Town Celebration from 2011 to the present.

He said that if he is elected, "everyone will have a seat at the table" and that he would schedule town hall meetings to work with residents on various issues.

The 58th district includes part of Enfield, specifically the Thompsonville section of town.